Haslar Visitors Group: News

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Mayor of Chichester's Charity 2009 -2010

YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP

July 2009

Tag removed

At least one of the men tagged in July 2008 has now had his tag removed.

May 2009

George outside the court

All freed men stay at liberty

All the men bailed last August are still free. The three who were tagged are still tagged, all still have to report to the police station, some daily, and all are doing so. Four have made fresh claims for asylum, one, for complicated legal reasons hasn't made a fresh asylum claim but is appealing to the High Court. The Home Office reply to the fresh claims is that they will be considered by 2011.

13th August 2008

WOW! WE GOT THEM ALL OUT!

Haslar visitors had a great success on 13th August when, after a long campaign, the final three Zimbabweans were released from Haslar.

There were four articles in the Guardian, letters written to a number of MPs, many of the great and the good petitioned to be sureties. A question was asked in the House of Lords. On the 20th July the Home Office was claiming that all the Zimbabweans in Haslar were "a danger to the UK", but within two weeks half were released on "temporary admission. BID, the bail charity did a wonderful job of preparing bail applications for the remaining three and we finally went to court on 13th August with a first rate pro-bono barrister. Three seperate cases were heard and bail was granted to each of the three men.

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7th August 2008

Zimbabweans in Indefinite Detention

The Problem

There are about fifty Zimbabweans in the UK in immigration detention. All are ex-criminal prisoners and the Home Office maintains they represent a danger to the UK and must be deported. A “danger to the UK” suggests terrorism, murder or paedophilia to the lay mind. But three of the five held in Haslar are being held for using false documents to obtain work. One is there for cheque fraud, one for robbery (the sum involved was £20). All six have served their criminal sentences and obtained full remission for good behaviour – if they were British they would be free.

They are not free but being held indefinitely under lock and key by the Borders Agency. One did nine months as a punishment and has since been over two years in detention; another did fifteen months and been another eight in detention; a third seven and a half, and has spent another four and a half in detention. They are not being deported but are not being released either.

There isn’t any immediate prospect of deportation. On 10^th July Gordon Brown announced in Parliament that no-one is being removed to Zimbabwe at this time. The European Parliament has called for “the suspension of the return of Zimbabwean asylum-seekers from Member States until the situation in Zimbabwe improves."

Release on Bail

We believe the Zimbabweans are effectively been detained long term and indefinitely and that this is totally un-reasonable. Therefore we are supporting the six men in Haslar in making bail applications. It is unusual for bail to be granted to ex-foreign-national prisoners, perhaps because the judges too readily accept the Home Office opinion that they are “a danger to the UK”. An excellent barrister has been recruited by BID the bail charity.

The first applications will be on 13th August at Hatton Cross, near Heathrow. Other applications will follow shortly after if not all the cases are heard that day.